


Teeth

by meoqie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anal Sex, Background FWB Hunk/Lance, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Kinda, M/M, Nightmares, Outdoor Sex, Pining Shiro (Voltron), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Soulmates, Trans Keith (Voltron), Trans Male Character, Vaginal Sex, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2018-12-22 13:46:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11968665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meoqie/pseuds/meoqie
Summary: Shiro found a group of friends at a dark point in his life, and several years later they're inseparable. Somewhere along the line, he fell in love with one of them. There's just one thing - he can never know, because Shiro would rather spend his whole life pining after Keith than risk their friendship with his romantic feelings.But after a spooky camping trip and a close encounter with what might be werewolves, Shiro's love for Keith could be the only thing able to save him from the curse of lycanthropy. No pressure though. Confessing to your best friend in order to cure him of being a werewolf is totally normal.Note: I was unaware of the 'horror' film of the same name when I came up with the title of this fic, so I apologize for any unfortunate associations.





	1. Poison in my bloodstream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title source: [Wolf Bite - Owl City](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdVO1EG3Hes)

_Bone-chilling howls cut through the night, but Shiro could barely hear them. His own panicked breathing and Keith’s cries for help drowned out all other sounds._

_Tree branches scratched at his arms and face as he ran through the dense woods around their campsite, following the sound of Keith’s voice. He burst out of the treeline so abruptly, he nearly fell. His heart flew to his throat as he anticipated a ledge of some kind, but it was only a clearing, brightly lit by the full moon._

  _Keith stood in the middle of the clearing, his back against a large boulder, surrounded by_ wolves _._

  _The wolves were larger than they should have been, their outlines not quite fitting into the landscape. They snarled, snapping their teeth at him. They had too many teeth, their mouths full of nothing else._

  _“Keith!” Shiro shouted, suddenly unable to move._

  _“Shiro!” Keith cried. “Please help me. I need you!”_

  _Shiro struggled against the invisible force holding him back. “Hey!” he growled, trying to distract the wolves. They didn’t even acknowledge his presence, crowding closer around Keith._

  _“Shiro, please,” Keith begged. “I need you. Please, help me! I need you.”_

  _There were so many teeth._

 

Shiro bolted upright, his heart pounding and soaked in a cold sweat. Outside the tent, crickets sang. He relaxed a little. Just a dream. The night was quiet and peaceful. Too quiet, he suddenly realized, not hearing the sound of Keith’s soft snoring from the other side of the tent. Squinting in the darkness, he peered over to see his empty sleeping bag.

 

 Panicked again, he crawled out of the tent so quickly he nearly made it collapse. “Keith!” he called out hoarsely.

 Keith, who was sitting on one of the logs in the middle of their campsite and absently poking at the small fire, looked up. “Shiro?” he asked, concern evident on his face. “Are you alright?”

 Shiro felt the panic recede into exhaustion, his shoulders slumping. “I had a weird nightmare,” he said, sitting down across from Keith.

 “Want to talk about it?”

 Shiro felt himself flush; he hoped it wasn’t visible in the dim firelight. The nightmare suddenly seemed incredibly foolish. His subconscious had twisted his affection for Keith into some savior fantasy gone bad.

 “I don’t really remember it,” he lied. “I just remember being freaked out, and when you weren’t in your sleeping bag, I was worried something was wrong.”

 “Sorry for scaring you; just couldn’t sleep. Came out here to look at the stars.”

 Shiro absently looked up and observed that his dream had been a little off on the status of the moon. It was gibbous, but not quite full yet.

 Keith was still staring at the sky when Shiro looked away, his expression vacant.

“Are _you_ alright?” he prompted.

 Keith shook himself slightly. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just one of those nights, you know? Let me sleep in tomorrow?”

 Shiro smiled crookedly. “You mean, keep Lance from waking you up at an ungodly hour with an air horn or something?”

 Keith winced. “Yeah.”

 “I will sit on him if need be.”

 The other boy laughed softly. “I don’t doubt it. Thanks, Shiro.”

 

Shiro turned to head back into his tent before pausing. It was irrational, but he needed to say something to appease his anxiety.

 “Hey Keith, just… stay within the campsite, alright?”

 Keith was silent, and Shiro glanced over at him. The other man was chewing his lip, his brow furrowed.

 “Are you sure you’re alright?” he prompted.

 “You never know what - or who - could be in the woods,” Shiro said, avoiding the question. “Haven’t you seen enough _Criminal Minds_ to know that?”

 Keith laughed, but it sounded forced. “I’ll be fine, Shiro. It’s cold away from the fire, anyway.”

 Satisfied, Shiro returned to the tent and the warmth of his sleeping bag. As he began to drift off, he distantly noted that Keith had never explicitly agreed to stay within the campsite.

 

* * *

 

 

The first thing Shiro registered when he woke was Keith’s distinctive snoring. Soft, with a little whistle on the end. He smiled to himself, quietly thanking the forces of the universe Keith was safe - and that he had the privilege of knowing the other man well enough to be intimately familiar with the sound of his snoring.

 He climbed out of the tent as quietly as possible, not wanting to disturb Keith. Outside the sky was cloudless and the sun bright, making his nighttime fears seem ridiculous. Hunk was boiling water over their campfire while Lance cracked eggs into a skillet. Pidge was most likely still asleep in her tent, having already threatened Lance with a fate worse than death if he dared rouse her before the reasonable hour of ten. The fact that they’d managed to drag her out camping with them was nothing short of a miracle in the first place.

 

“Please tell me that water is on its way to becoming coffee,” Shiro said, dropping onto a log to sit.

 “Didn’t sleep well?” Hunk asked, handing over a thermos and the small coffee press.

 Shiro shook his head. “Had a weird nightmare about wolves,” he explained, leaving out the rather minor detail that the nightmare was actually about _Keith_ being attacked by wolves.

 “I think there were actually some wolves in the woods last night,” Lance said. “I heard some howling when I woke up to take a piss. They sounded decently far away. It was definitely the fastest midnight piss I ever took, though, before skedaddling back to the tent.”

 “Because a tent is definitely going to protect you from wolves,” Hunk said, his sarcasm subtle but still evident.

 Lance scowled. “Listen, if I’m gonna go down fighting a pack of wolves, I would rather not do it with my dick out and piss all over my feet.”

 “I would probably just piss myself if I was attacked by a wolf,” Hunk mused.

 Shiro raised an eyebrow at the random confession, busying himself with the coffee press.

 “Hunk, you pissed yourself watching a horror movie last week,” Lance said.

 “I told you a hundred times, I did not piss myself!” Hunk argued. “I jumped and spilled my drink over my lap!”

 “Uh-huh, whatever you say, big guy,” Lance said, laughing.

 Hunk huffed in exasperation.

 “Lance, don’t make Hunk complicit in your piss kink,” Shiro said, suppressing a grin.

 Lance’s ears turned red and he nearly dropped the spatula he was using to flip the eggs. “I don’t have a piss kink!”

 “They do say that bedwetters tend to develop piss kinks after puberty,” Hunk added, grinning.

 “I wasn’t a bedwetter!” Lance protested.

 “I’m glad everyone is making fun of Lance, but I can confirm that he wasn’t a bedwetter past the usual potty training age,” Keith’s voice said suddenly.

 Yawning, the black haired man slouched out of the tent. Shiro felt warm and fuzzy at the sight of his ridiculous bedhead.

 “Thank you, Keith,” Lance said, satisfied.

 “But he does have a piss kink,” Keith finished, smirking.

 Lance let out a betrayed wail. “I’m sticking your hand in a bowl of warm water tonight,” he threatened.

 “Whoa, dude, I didn’t consent to participate in your fetish,” Keith teased, sitting down beside Shiro.

 “It’s okay, Lance, we all have our things,” Hunk said, trying not to laugh. “There’s no kink-shaming among friends.”

 “I’m actually going to murder all of you,” Lance muttered.

 Shiro chuckled and shook his head. He personally didn’t care if Lance had a piss kink, but it was entertaining to watch him get riled up.

  
  
“I’m surprised to see you awake this early,” Shiro said to Keith, pouring him a cup of coffee from the freshly brewed thermos.

 Keith shrugged. “I just couldn’t sleep any more.” His face emptied of emotion as he blew across the surface of the coffee, his eyes fixated on the woods.

 Shiro decided he needed to press Keith for details on why he was acting so odd, but not now. Selfishly, he enjoyed being the only one Keith truly confided in. Shiro knew he wouldn’t open up with Hunk and Lance within earshot.

 

So they ate eggs and drank coffee in companionable silence, waiting for Pidge to wake up so they could actually start their plans for the day.

 

The plans were mainly a vigorous hike through the woods, bright sunshine filtering through the trees as birds sang loudly.

 “How come when birds are singing about food and sex, it’s beautiful, but when I do it it’s ‘gross, Lance, this is why you’re never going to get laid’?” Lance commented glumly in response to Shiro pointing out a particularly lovely bird call.

 Shiro laughed along with Hunk and Pidge, before noticing that Keith wasn’t laughing with them.

 He turned to look at him, Keith having taken the rear of their single file excursion down the narrow trail. The other man looked a million miles away, his face showing no indication that he’d heard the self-depreciating comment.

 “Earth to Keith,” Shiro called mildly.

 Keith snapped his attention up with a small shake. “Huh?”

 “Where were you just now?” Shiro asked.

 Keith frowned. “Just thinking. What did I miss?”

 “Just Lance roasting himself,” Shiro glanced up the trail to see that the other three had continued. “Are you okay? You’ve been kind of spacey all morning.”

 “Just tired,” Keith said, his eyes sliding away from Shiro’s. “I’m hoping this hike will wear me out enough that I’ll actually sleep tonight.”

 Shiro frowned, but didn’t press the matter further, turning back to catch up with Hunk, Lance, and Pidge. He knew that Keith occasionally struggled with insomnia; it was one of the first things they’d been able to bond over back when they first met. However, the last he knew it had become a rare occurrence, only flaring up if there was something causing him a lot of stress. So, it begged the questions - why was Keith stressed, and why wasn’t he talking to Shiro about it?

 

“Hey, guys!” Pidge called out to them, waving her arms. “Come check this out! There’s wolf tracks in this clearing!”

 Shiro’s stomach went cold, last night’s nightmare filling his head with the sounds of vicious howling. Forcing the fear down, he kept his expression neutral as he caught up to Pidge.

 The clearing was exactly as he dreamed it, the large rock like an altar in the center. The scrubby ground was covered in large paw prints, and Shiro felt a little sick.

 “These are really large for wolf tracks,” Hunk murmured, crouching down for a closer look.

 “Oh man, this is kind of freaky,” Lance said. “They were so close to our campsite.”

 “Wolves won’t attack humans unless they’re starving or diseased,” Keith said quietly, appearing beside Shiro’s elbow. “We’re perfectly safe.” He looked around the clearing, his nose wrinkled like something smelled unpleasant. “I’m kind of tired. I think I’m going to head back to the campsite and take a nap. You guys can continue on, though.”

 Shiro opened his mouth to say something, but Keith caught his eye and shook his head slightly.

 Busy taking pictures of the unusual tracks, the other three just nodded.

 

Shiro watched Keith leave with worry chewing at the pit of his stomach. Something was up, and it seemed to tie in uncomfortably with his nightmare, and, inexplicably, wolves.

 

“Guys?” Pidge said, frowning as she looked up from her phone. “These tracks are the size of the largest known _gray_ wolves.”

 “And?” Shiro prompted, staring at the boulder where his nightmare had placed Keith. He hadn’t seen this clearing before today. Normally, he wasn’t a believer in the supernatural, but this was making him consider converting.

 Pidge shot him a glare. “Gray wolves are _exceptionally_ rare in North America, and they’re primarily found in Alaska, or around the great lakes area. The last known gray wolves in Texas died back in the seventies.”

 “Weren’t there efforts to rebuild the population of Mexican gray wolves?” Hunk suggested.

 Pidge shook her head. “In Arizona and New Mexico. Not Texas. If there was suddenly a pack of gray wolves in this woods, it’d be publicized. Their population is closely tracked.”

 “Well, this leaves us with one option,” Lance said solemnly. “ _Werewolves_.”

 

* * *

 

 

Pidge, Hunk, and Lance argued about the possibility of werewolves the whole walk back. Lance insisted that it just made sense - gray wolves were about the size of an adult human, for one. There was no known gray wolf population in the area, but there were obvious signs of a gray wolf pack having filled the clearing.

 Shiro was silent, barely listening to any of their conversation.

 “Every culture across the world has legends of werewolves, Pidge!” Lance exclaimed. “You believe in Bigfoot and Mothman, so why are werewolves such a stretch?”

 “Bigfoot and Mothman are isolated incidents with potential scientific explanation,” Pidge replied. “Werewolves don’t follow any biological rules. There’s nothing that can just transform because the moon looks a certain way from the earth. That’s magic, Lance, and magic doesn’t exist.”

 “But what if it does?” Shiro said suddenly.

 The other three all turned around to look at him in shock.

 “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Lance said. “Who are you, and what have you done with Takashi ‘Doubting Thomas’ Shirogane?”

 Shiro scowled. “It’s just basic logic. Once you’ve eliminated the impossible, no matter how improbable whatever is left, it must be the truth, or something like that.”

 “I genuinely can’t tell if you’re quoting Sherlock Holmes or Star Trek,” Hunk muttered.

 “I feel like, in this case, the _improbable_ possibility is that somehow a pack of Mexican gray wolves have taken up residence in these woods, slipping under the radar of whoever usually keeps track of their population,” Pidge said. “Seriously, what’s gotten into you, Shiro? You’re usually the first one to discredit an outlandish idea.”

 “I had a dream about that clearing last night,” Shiro said, and Pidge’s eyes widened.

 “Maybe you’d been there before on a previous hike?” Hunk suggested nervously.

 Shiro shook his head. “I’m positive I’ve never seen it before. But, in my dream, it was exactly like it is here - except it was full of wolves. Wolves that had mouths made of nothing but teeth.”

 “Okay, I’m officially freaked out,” Hunk declared. “Is anyone else freaked out? Because this has entered ‘things that freak me out’ territory.”

 “Okay, okay, let’s say, _theoretically_ , there are werewolves,” Pidge said. “They didn’t seem interested in bothering us. Lance, Shiro, and Keith were all up and outside of the tents last night, and none of them were attacked. Which means they probably mean us no harm, right? So there’s no reason to freak out.”

 “Wolves with nothing in their mouth but teeth, teeth, and more teeth?” Hunk said in a strained voice.

 “That was just Shiro’s nightmare,” Lance reminded. “Sure, it’s a little spooky that it was about that exact clearing, but that doesn’t mean actual wolves are horrible monsters. In some folklore, werewolves are actually kind and beneficial.”

 “And real wolves, like Keith said, don’t attack people for no reason,” Pidge added. “Supposing that werewolves exist, in their wolf form they probably behave a lot like real wolves. And if they have human intelligence in their wolf form, they wouldn’t just attack and murder humans at random, either. That’d be a fast track to getting their pack hunted down and eradicated. This isn’t the 1700s.”

 “So, what do we do?” Hunk asked.

 “Nothing,” Shiro answered firmly. “Except cut this camping trip short and head home.”

 “Aw…” Lance said quietly, his shoulders slumping.

 “What if they are actually normal gray wolves?” Pidge argued. “We need to let someone know!”

 “If they are, they won’t go undetected forever,” Shiro said. “Come on, we need to pack up and be out of these woods before nightfall.”

 

He knew he was being a little irrational, but the possibility of something like _werewolves_ actually existing was sending his usual rational state into a tailspin.

 

Keith was sitting beside the now-dead campfire when they returned, nursing another cup of coffee and staring blankly at the ashes. He didn’t even look up when they returned, despite the fact that Pidge and Lance were, once again, arguing loudly.

 The unease Shiro had been experiencing grew more pronounced, and he called out Keith’s name.

 As if rousing from slumber, Keith blinked slowly and turned towards him. “Oh, hey. You’re back sooner than I expected.”

 “We’re leaving,” Shiro said shortly.

 “What, why?”

 “Shiro thinks there’s werewolves in the woods,” Pidge said, rolling her eyes.

 Keith stiffened minutely. “Werewolves, Shiro? Seriously? You don’t even believe in ghosts or aliens.”

 “There’s _something_ in the woods,” Shiro insisted, hating the way Keith was staring at him. “And I want out of here. Come on, let’s go.”

 

Alone together in their tent as they rolled up the sleeping bags, Keith lightly nudged Shiro.

 “Are you sure you don’t remember that nightmare?” he asked quietly.

 “I’m sure,” Shiro said. “But I have this nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I don’t think it’s safe to stay out here another night. You don’t think I’m crazy, do you?”

 Keith’s expression was unreadable as he slowly shook his head. “I trust your instincts, Shiro. You’ve always been the most level-headed of all of us. If something’s freaking you out, I believe you.”

 Shiro sagged a little in relief. “Thanks, Keith.”

 Keith just nudged him again with a small smile. “Let’s hurry up and get the little stuff finished so we can tackle the nightmare that’s taking down the tents.”

 Shiro groaned, remembering how hard it had been to set them up in the first place.

 “I’m currently traumatized. I don’t think I should do any heavy lifting,” he pleaded.

 “Nice try. For that, I should make you take it down all by yourself,” Keith retorted.

 “Okay, okay,” Shiro said quickly, not wanting to deal with the infernal contraption without an extra set of hands.

 Keith laughed. “Maybe next time, we should check out the surrounding woods before we make camp,” he suggested as they deflated the small air mattresses.

 Shiro gave him a grateful look. “That sounds like a solid plan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/meoqie) and [tumblr](http://meoqie.tumblr.com)! Thanks for reading!


	2. My heart's a prisoner to my ribs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title source: [Werewolf Heart - Dead Man's Bones](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhANCZvAHkM)

In the two weeks following their ill-fated camping trip, Keith effectively fell off the grid, at least in regards to communication with Shiro. 

 

That wasn’t entirely unusual; they were both adults with full-time jobs, and sometimes carving out time for social interaction was impossible. But typically they’d have sporadic ongoing conversations over text, at the very least, to check in on each other. Casual queries to the others revealed that he hadn’t touched base with any of them, either. 

Shiro’s texts went unanswered, and the only thing that kept him from outright panicking was the little ‘read’ receipt that would pop up after a while and the apology that he’d been busy a few days later.

  
Still, he worried. Why was Keith being so distant with him? Had he done something? He thought everything had been fine after the camping trip, though even then Keith had been acting kind of weird. So he decided to take drastic measures. 

 

_ Hey, your next day off, movie night at my place. Chinese from the place on Fletcher _ , Shiro texted.  _ I’m buying _ .

It was fighting dirty because Keith could never refuse his favorite Chinese takeout, especially if he didn’t have to pay for it. But Shiro was getting desperate. 

This time the reply was almost instantaneous.  _ I’m off today actually _ , Keith sent.  _ I can pick up the food on the way over? Just give me a time. _

Shiro shook his head, smiling slightly. The fastest way to Keith’s attention was through cheap and greasy fast food. 

_ I’m at work until 3 _ , Shiro answered.  _ So 3:30ish? _

_ Sounds good. See you then. _

 

Shiro ordered more food than two people could conceivably eat in a single sitting, but they’d probably end up eating all of it anyway, then spend the entire evening bemoaning the fact that they’d eaten too much. 

Almost exactly at three-thirty, Keith walked through his front door, bag of Chinese in hand. Their entire friend group had long since moved past knocking, but Keith was the only one who had a key to Shiro’s place.

Lance sometimes joked that it was as if they were dating, since neither of them had romantic partners otherwise. Keith just snorted and hit his shoulder. Shiro always stayed silent, waiting for someone to move the topic along.

His feelings for Keith were a complete secret from everyone except Pidge, who was too observant for her own good and managed to confront him about it when they were both a little tipsy.

 

_ “Why not just confess?” she demanded. “You’re already so close. I don’t think Keith would object to considering a romantic relationship with you.” _

_ “Because everyone thinks I’m straight,” Shiro said, running a hand through his hair and sighing. “I don’t know how that would make him feel, you know?” _

_ Pidge frowned but nodded. “Honestly, the way you described your feelings… speaking from experience, it actually sounds like you’re on the asexual spectrum?” _

_ “Uh. I don’t think so. I mean I… desire Keith in that way, too,” Shiro admitted, embarrassed. _

_ Pidge made a face. “Alright, TMI, but demisexual is a thing that’s considered part of the asexual  _ spectrum _ , and that really sounds like the way you feel about Keith.” _

_ Shiro hummed, considering. “God, that seems like such a weird cop out, though. I feel like I would have to ‘come out’ as that long before I make any confessions. I don’t ever want Keith to think I see him as anything other than the man he is.” _

_ “I understand,” Pidge said. “I appreciate that you respect him so much. But you really should think about maybe exploring that as an option. Be honest with yourself, Shiro - you’ve got it bad. You spent five straight minutes describing how cute he is when he’s concentrating really hard during  _ Monopoly _.” _

_ “It wasn’t five minutes!” Shiro protested. _

_ “It might have actually been six.”  _

 

“I’ve been smelling this food the entire drive over here and I need to eat it now before I turn into a literal demon,” Keith, depositing the bag on Shiro’s kitchen counter. “What are we watching?”

“B list horror or conspiracy documentaries, take your pick,” Shiro said.

Just having Keith in his apartment was making him feel more relaxed and content, and he hoped that things would return to normal after this.

Keith narrowed his eyes slightly. “It’s months until my birthday, Shiro. What’s this about?”

Shiro shrugged, embarrassed that he was being so transparent in catering to Keith’s favorite things. “You kind of ghosted on everybody after the camping trip, I missed you. This is all a bribe to get you to hang out with me if I’m being totally honest.” 

Keith laughed briefly. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind, and busy with work. I didn’t realize how much time had passed, truthfully.”

“Is it your insomnia again?” Shiro asked carefully.

Keith hesitated before nodding.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really,” Keith admitted. “It’s just stupid stuff. Things I really ought to have moved on from by now. Let’s just watch terrible horror movies and eat Chinese food.”

Shiro bit his tongue against all the questions that he wanted to bombard Keith with. He knew the other man wouldn’t appreciate a lecture about how whatever he was feeling was totally valid, no matter what it was. It sounded patronizing even in theory, no matter how good his intentions were. So he just got out plates for the food and set everything up on the coffee table as Keith turned on the TV.

 

Upon seeing Keith, Shiro’s cat, Quark, leaped off the couch and dashed into his bedroom. The cat always had a dislike of him, for some reason, but that was the first time she ever reacted so violently.

“What the hell, Quark?” Shiro mused.

“I might smell like the neighbor’s dog,” Keith said, sitting down and starting to open up containers. “He came over and demanded I pet him before I left.” 

Shiro frowned slightly. As far as he knew, none of Keith’s neighbors had a dog. Maybe it was a recent thing. If Keith was losing track of time thanks to his insomnia, he wouldn’t think to mention something as inconsequential as a neighbor getting a new dog.

“It’s kind of surprising that work is busy this time of year,” Shiro said carefully. “Usually the summer is quiet.”

“We lost a lot more employees to the school year ending than usual,” Keith said around a mouthful of crab rangoon. “Flaky high school seniors who decided they wanted a totally free summer before college. Must be nice not needing the cash, right?”

Shiro snorted slightly in agreement. “But more money for you. Just at the price of being totally exhausted all the time.”

“Sometimes I wonder if the money is worth selling my soul to the green mermaid,” Keith agreed mournfully. “I should just go live like a hermit in the woods.”

“Would I still be able to visit you?”

“I guess.”

“Don’t sound like that would be such a burden, geez,” Shiro said, a little offended. “I bought you half your weight in Chinese.”

Keith laughed softly. “Okay, so only if you bring Chinese out to my hermit cave.”

“You only love me for Chinese food.”

“Basically.”

Shiro hit Keith with one of the couch pillows; he retaliated by pelting him with the fortune cookies.

 

* * *

 

Several hours of shitty horror movies later and stuffed with all the Chinese they could eat, Shiro noticed that Keith had gotten quiet.

Glancing over, he found the other man curled up against the arm of the couch, fast asleep. He still had a smudge of sweet and sour sauce on his cheek. Very carefully, Shiro took a napkin and wiped it off before placing a fleece blanket from the back of the couch over Keith. It was covered in cat hair, but most things in his apartment were. 

The temptation to lean down and kiss his forehead was almost overwhelming, but Shiro pushed it away. No matter how platonic, it felt disrespectful to steal a kiss when Keith couldn’t have any say in it. He stood and started quietly cleaning up the Chinese containers, letting Keith sleep. 

 

His close relationship with Keith still felt like a miracle. When they’d met, they’d both been completely closed off and distant, not exactly an ideal situation for forming new friendships.

Shiro had just been discharged from the military, and readjusting to civilian life felt almost more difficult than being in a combat zone. That was apparently normal, according to his therapist, but knowing it was normal didn’t make it any easier to handle. 

“You need a support network,” his therapist had told him after the third week of confessing he’d barely managed to get out of bed to even eat a bowl of cereal. 

What support network? Shiro thought hopelessly. He didn’t have any family, and the closest people in his life - his unit - were either dead or still overseas. It felt unfair, his injuries prevented him from staying in action, but everyone else who’d gotten sent home did so in coffins. 

Survivor's guilt, his therapist had explained. 

Struggling through physical therapy when he didn’t even want to be alive was harder than anything he’d ever done. 

 

Reprieve came from a totally unexpected source - a roommate, Matt Holt, from the one year he’d been able to attend space camp. His father was a military veteran as well, and Shiro got swept up into the warm, loving environment of his family, even after Matt left to join NASA.

Pidge was only sixteen at the time, but already in her first year of college. Constant proximity resulted in Shiro getting absorbed into her group of friends before he was really aware of it. He’d been a wreck, jumping at every sound and constantly in pain, and was significantly older than most of them. But they put up with him anyway.

It probably saved his life.

 

Keith was in a similar state of human trainwreck. He’d cut ties with his family after coming out, and dropped out of college. He rarely spoke and when he did it was incendiary, attacking everyone before they had the chance to attack him first. Seeing him grow into confidence and maturity was like watching a desert come to life after a rainstorm. And somewhere along the line, Shiro fell for him. 

How could he not? Keith’s personality was like a gravitational force, pulling Shiro in. He was quiet but not meek, with a quirky sense of humor and loyalty in spades. The phrase ‘ride or die’ applied perfectly to him. If Keith trusted someone, he was all in. The day Shiro realized he’d earned that trust was the same day he also realized he was in love with him.

Both restless sleepers, late night texts and calls between them were frequent. Having someone else fighting nighttime demons at three a.m. with you made things a little easier. 

What Shiro hadn’t known is that he was the only one Keith shared his midnight fears with.

 

_ “Thank you for this, Shiro,” Keith’s voice whispered through the phone as he laid in the dark. “I can’t really talk about this with anyone else. I would be too afraid of them thinking I was weak or something. I know that sounds stupid.” _

_ “It’s not stupid,” Shiro answered. “And I’m glad you trust me enough to know this doesn’t change my opinion of you at all.” _

_ Keith laughed, his voice shaky. “What would I do without you?” _

_ “Be just fine,” Shiro assured him. “Don’t think for one second you would fall apart if you didn’t have me. You’re one of the strongest people I know. But I would do anything for you, Keith. You’re my best friend.” _

 

The fact that he really would do  _ anything _ for Keith was like a sledgehammer right to his heart. The feeling was completely new, and it was as if the ground had been pulled out from underneath Shiro’s feet. 

Love. This was what love felt like. He valued Keith’s safety and happiness above anything else. Selfless, deep, and passionate love. And he couldn’t say anything about it, because he couldn’t violate the newly earned trust that Keith had granted him. 

Or so he told himself. The truth was he was just too much of a coward to confess and risk rejection. Better to just be Keith’s best friend instead of complicating things with his romantic feelings. So he just silently pined after him, in Pidge’s words. 

 

_ “Like a complete idiot,” she’d said. “As if Keith would actually reject  _ you _.” _

 

* * *

 

 

About an hour after he’d dozed off, Keith stirred, shuffling into the kitchen with the blanket wrapped around him.

“I fell asleep,” he said, sounding incredulous.

“I think you blacked out,” Shiro joked. “Extreme food coma.”

Keith snorted, rubbing his face. “Shit. I should probably get going though. I have an opening shift tomorrow. Thanks for the Chinese, Shiro. I owe you one.”

“I’ll keep that in mind next time you ‘forget your wallet’ for a late night Waffle House trip,” Shiro teased. 

“That was one time!” Keith whined.

Shiro laughed, and as they said goodbye he felt content in thinking that everything would go back to normal.

 

* * *

 

Of course, nothing could be that simple. Keith got even more distant, somehow. Shiro was at a loss of what he had possibly done wrong. He knew that Keith was working a lot, but he couldn’t even answer a simple text?

 

“It’s not just you,” Pidge assured him. “Keith has been acting really weird ever since the camping trip. Lance and Hunk think so, too.”

“Do you think it has something to do with the wolves?” Shiro said.

Pidge frowned, looking at him over the top of her laptop. “Why would it have something to do with the wolves? Who were not werewolves, by the way. Because werewolves don’t exist.”

Shiro hesitated. “I have a confession to make,” he admitted. “I didn’t just dream about wolves in that clearing. Keith was there, too. The wolves were going to attack him.”

“Okay that’s… definitely weird,” Pidge acknowledged. “I still don’t think it has to do with the wolves, though.”

“Why not?” Shiro demanded. “I had a weirdly prophetic dream about a place I had never been. There were gray wolf tracks in a place gray wolves have no business being in. At the risk of sounding like Hunk, I’m a little freaked out here! You know me, Pidge. I’m rational and logical,  and I don’t believe in the supernatural. But I can’t stop thinking about it and equating Keith’s weird behavior to what happened in those woods.”

Pidge sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “So what do you want to do about it?” she asked.

Shiro sighed as well. What  _ could _ he do about it? Keith wasn’t talking, and pressing him for answers would just make him retreat more. The only solution would be to just leave it alone and hope things got better. He didn’t even know how everything was connected. There was his nightmare, Keith’s distance, and the possibility of werewolves.

 

“Werewolves,” Shiro said suddenly.

“Oh my god, no!” Pidge complained. “There’s no such thing as werewolves!”

“Okay, but what if there is?” Shiro continued, his idea gaining traction inside his head. “And what if Keith was bitten by a werewolf on our trip? That would explain why he was being so weird when I woke up, and why he’s been distant the entire time since. It would explain why my cat was so frantic to get away from him the other day! The full moon was only a few days after we got back, he would have already experienced his first transformation. What if he did something awful during his first time as a wolf?”

Pidge rubbed her temples. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this from you, of all people. I’m not humoring this idea, Shiro. It’s ridiculous. Doesn’t it sound ridiculous?”

“Well, yes,” Shiro admitted. It was his own idea and it still sounded, well, ridiculous. That didn’t stop him from considering it as a possibility.

“I’ll tell you what,” Pidge said. “Find me undeniable proof that Keith somehow got turned into a werewolf, and we’ll go from there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shiro is not an amputee in this fic; he suffered severe injuries that required a lot of recovery time but didn't lose his arm. Since in canon his prosthetic is far more advanced than anything available in today's world, it doesn't function as quite the same disability as it would in a real life setting. So I chose not to include it.
> 
> For anyone who is curious, here's everyone's ages and occupations! Pidge is 21 and in grad school, Hunk is 24 and a mechanic, Lance is 23 (nearly 24 as this fic takes place in the summer) and works as a bartender, Keith is 24 (25 in a few months) and is a barista, and Shiro is 29 and an RN serving as a home health aide for other disabled veterans.
> 
> Find me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/meoqie) and [tumblr](http://meoqie.tumblr.com)! Thanks for reading!


	3. Swallow my breath and take what is mine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title source: [Of Monsters And Men - Wolves Without Teeth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAI5GSyXMjA)

“We need to talk,” Lance sent to a group text a the day after Shiro’s conversation with Pidge. “It’s about Keith.”

 

By ‘talk’ he meant ‘gather as a group for a serious discussion, and no, I will not give you any information over text.’

They couldn’t find time to get together until another few days after that, and Shiro thought he was going to claw his own skin off with anxiety. Adult lives were endless cycles of incompatible schedules. Unless they all made a point of taking time off for something, like the camping trip, getting five people to have even an hour free at the same time was a logistic impossibility. Friend group sitcoms were the worst kind of liars. No one in their twenties had time to be gathering at a bar every single evening with their friends. Unless they were incredibly wealthy, in which case they probably had better things to do than gather at the local bar. 

It felt weird meeting up with everyone without Keith; Shiro’s living room notably less full despite the three extra people. Quark watched them warily from her perch on the bookshelf, her tail flicking irritably; as her peaceful evening was disturbed by the sudden influx of humanity. 

“So,” Shiro said, depositing himself into his rather battered armchair. “Start talking.”

Lance snorted slightly. “Holy shit, Shiro, you sound like a character on a cop show.”

“ _ Lance _ .”

“Okay, okay. So Keith’s been acting totally weird since the camping trip, right? I mean, weirder than his usual brand of weird. Anyway, the other day I stopped by his apartment to drop off some of his DVDs that I had borrowed for way too long because I genuinely forgot about them? They were just sitting next to our tv and I didn’t think-”

“Lance!” Pidge shouted, kicking his shin from her position of laying on Shiro’s floor.

“Ow, you’re an asshole,” Lance complained. “Okay, anyway. I stopped by, and he wasn’t home, so I was just going to shove them through his mail slot, when I found the absolute weirdest thing. Along the side of his door were  _ claw marks _ , like a really large dog had tried to open it.”

“Isn’t that freaky?” Hunk said. “I didn’t believe him until he showed me the pictures.”

“Is there any reason you couldn’t just send the pictures through the group chat?” Shiro asked, annoyed that he’d been put through three days of worrying when there wasn’t really a good reason.

“Because the big reveal to the group was more dramatic,” Lance said.

“Hunk already knew,” Pidge pointed out.

“Hunk lives with me and occasionally fucks me, he’s different,” Lance dismissed. “Anyway, claw marks! Look at this shit!”

He presented his phone to Pidge and Shiro. Keith’s familiar apartment building door was marred with deep claw lines, exactly as Lance said - like a large dog had been scrabbling to open it. Or… a wolf.

“So this is gonna sound totally crazy,” Lance continued.

“Oh no,” Pidge whispered. 

“But I think Keith might be a werewolf,” he finished.

Pidge screeched in agony. “I need new friends.”

Shiro sighed. “I actually came to that conclusion, too,” he confessed. “The werewolf thing, I mean. Not needing new friends. I was just talking to Pidge about it the other day.”

Lance and Hunk gaped at him, and he felt his standing as the ‘sensible one’ in the group dissolving before his eyes. He quietly mourned the loss as he continued on.

“I know it sounds absurd, but my gut is telling me there’s something impossible happening here. I can’t get my nightmare out of my head.”

“Keith was in Shiro’s dream,” Pidge supplied in response to the curious looks from Hunk and Lance. 

Shiro resisted the urge to throw something at her. Everyone knowing that he had dreams about Keith was high on his list of things he would have prefered to avoid.

“There’s something supernatural going on here,” Lance said. “Pidge, you have to acknowledge that at least. This goes beyond scientific explanation. Prophetic dreams are divination.” 

“‘Prophetic dreams’ are usually the result of shitty human memories changing the details from what they remember to fit a real life situation,” Pidge argued. “Shiro saw the clearing and his brain decided it was the same generic clearing from his dream.”

“No,” Shiro said firmly. “It was the exact clearing. I’m certain. I know the science behind dreams, Pidge. My dreams are always very vivid, and I remember them distinctly.”

Pidge flung up her hands in irritation. “I need more proof,” she said. 

“Like what? Seeing if he doesn’t have a reflection in mirrors?” Lance asked.

“That’s vampires,” Hunk said. “And fun fact about that, it’s because mirrors used to be backed with silver. Modern mirrors are backed with aluminum, so the mirror test wouldn’t work on a vampire anymore.”

“I’ll keep that in mind next time I meet a vampire,” Lance muttered. 

“Well you just might!” Pidge said. “What the hell! Why shouldn’t vampires exists if we’re entertaining the idea of werewolves. Fairies! Goblins! Complete anarchy of the natural world! Fuck the laws of physics or whatever.”

“Oh, quit being so dramatic,” Hunk said. “Magic is just energy, right? So why couldn’t it exist?”

“Guys!” Shiro finally exclaimed, growing irritated. “Can we stop arguing about the existence of magic and deal with the bigger issue - the fact that Keith might be in trouble?”

The other three sobered slightly and nodded. 

“We’re going to try to find proof,” Shiro continued. “And then we’re going to find a way to fix it. We’re going to save Keith.”

 

* * *

 

Finding information on evidence for werewolves proved more difficult that Shiro anticipated. If he was going to be honest with himself, he sort of imagined some kind of secret library full of dusty tomes on magic and witchcraft. The hunt for information actually entailed a lot of fruitless Google searches. There were a ridiculously large amount of quizzes made by teenagers who apparently wanted to be werewolves. It was making Shiro feel stupid for even considering the idea.

 

But then the nightmares started.

 

Shiro was used to nightmares. When he first came home, they were almost constant, and he had never been able to shake them entirely. These nightmares were completely different from his combat flashbacks. They reminded him more of night terrors he’d had as a child, filled with imaginary monsters and demonic shadows.

The monsters in these dreams always took the same shape - wolves. Wolves taller than houses, wolves with long, sinuous bodies like snakes, wolves made of fire and metal. Their howls shook the ground as they gnashed their teeth.

Shiro woke, gasping and trembling. The first night, he reached for his phone to call Keith before he stopped himself. If Keith was a werewolf, hearing about Shiro’s nightmares might just make things worse for him. He calmed himself down alone, through stupid videos on YouTube and a mug of tea, but there was no more sleep to be found for him that night.

 

* * *

 

Five nights of nonstop nightmares had Shiro feeling haggard and exhausted. He dragged himself out of bed on the fifth night, heading to his kitchen to make coffee in the hopes it would help him feel a little less like he was dying. If he wasn’t going to sleep, he might as well do something productive with his time. Maybe he’d finally put together that cat tree for Quark, just so she could sit in the box it came in instead. 

Back in his bedroom, his cell phone rang. Shiro nearly dropped the bag of coffee beans he was holding as he raced back to answer it, expecting Keith’s name on the screen. Instead, astonishingly, it was Pidge. 

“Hello?” Shiro answered, baffled.

“Shiro, Keith is a werewolf,” Pidge said, her voice shaky and quiet. “I saw him.”

 

* * *

 

Luckily Shiro didn’t have work until later in the day, so he was able to immediately drive over to the Holts. Pidge was fully dressed, boots and all, huddled on the couch.

“Explain again what you saw,” Shiro said, sitting down beside her. “It was hard to make it out over the phone.”

Pidge took an unsteady breath. “I was coming back from the lab- you know how I am when I’m working, I lose track of time and the next thing you know it’s four in the morning.”

Shiro nodded.

“Anyway, the highway I take to get home goes right past the back of Keith’s complex. Where the other side is all trees? I’m driving slow, because that late there’s usually deer. And I see this giant  _ wolf  _ come running out of the woods, across the highway, and into the parking lot of the complex. When it reached the buildings? I watched it turn into a person. It was Keith, it  _ had _ to be!”

Despite being the one to suggest the idea in the first place, the knowledge that Keith was actually a werewolf had Shiro feeling shaken.

“Are you sure it wasn’t just your eyes playing tricks on you?” he asked nervously. “You had just been staring at a computer screen all night.”

Pidge shook her head. “I know what I saw. I watched a wolf turn into a human. That’s all the proof I need.” She rubbed her face, her skin pale and blotchy. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to find a way to cure him,” Shiro said grimly.

 

* * *

 

Finding cures for lycanthropy was just as difficult as the initial search for proof. Through Lance and Hunk trading shifts with coworkers and Pidge skipping class, they managed to all gather at Shiro’s again that evening.

Pidge tapped away at her laptop while Hunk and Lance scrolled through tablets, tracking down as much information as they could on werewolf cures. Shiro was performing a similar search on his phone. 

“A lot of this stuff involves causing harm to the individual,” Pidge said, clawing a hand through her hair in frustration. “Silver brands, silver bullets, drinking  _ poison _ …”

Shiro paced in a tight circle, too agitated to sit.

“Clearly most people want to kill werewolves, not cure them,” Lance said. “There’s something about calling out to the werewolf with their ‘Christian name’ three times…”

Shiro made a face. “I’m pretty sure that means the name someone was christened with, so their birth-given name.”

The other three made equally sour expressions. “Yeah, absolutely not,” Lance said. “Moving on.”

“Here’s something about a white witch making a potion to restore a werewolf’s humanity,” Hunk said, flicking through his tablet. “Oh, wait, no, that’s the poison plant again.”

 

“This is getting us nowhere!” Shiro exclaimed, kicking his coffee table and sending it skidding across the living room.

The other three looked at him in shock. He sighed and collapsed into the armchair. “I’m sorry, I- I’m just really frustrated and  _ scared _ . Suddenly werewolves are real and Keith is in danger, and I don’t know what to  _ do _ . I can’t fix this. And I don’t know how to handle it.”

He buried his face in his hands. Pidge quietly crossed the room to put a hand on his shoulder.

"We’ll find something, Shiro,” she promised. “We’re going to take care of Keith. We just need to keep looking.”

Shiro leaned against her arm and sighed. She patted his hair soothingly. 

“Okay,” he breathed, feeling calmer. “Thanks, Pidge.”

Pidge smiled slightly, returning to her computer.

 

“So, I may have something,” she said after a few moments. “There’s not a lot of sources for this one and it’s kind of fairytale, but like,  _ werewolves _ , so whatever. This says that if someone who truly loves the werewolf tracks them down on the night of the full moon, professes their love, and embraces them, the werewolf will be cured.”

“Keith doesn’t exactly have anyone who could  _ love _ him back from lycanthropy; his family sucks, and he doesn’t have a boyfriend,” Lance said, irritated. “So that’s out.”

“Well it doesn’t say it has to be an established romantic relationship love, or even requited love,” Pidge said. “So if we knew someone who was hopelessly in love with Keith…” She was glaring at Shiro.

Shiro swallowed nervously as Lance and Hunk turned towards him.

“Oh, no way,” Hunk said. “You have a thing for Keith?”

“Has for ages,” Pidge said, smug. “He’s just been too much of a coward to confess.”

Shiro’s shoulders sank with miserable shame. He  _ was _ a coward, and he hated it.

“I thought you were straight,” Lance said, frowning. “I mean, not that you ever actually expressed interest in any girls, but you didn’t express interest in guys either, so I guess I just assumed, that was probably shitty of me…”

“Heterosexual until proven otherwise is kind of the default,” Hunk said, patting Lance’s shoulder in solidarity. “Even for a squad as queer as ours. So, uh, what _ are  _ you?” 

“I don’t know,” Shiro confessed. “I don’t really remember having any specific crushes when I was younger. But once I became close friends with Keith, it was like a  _ holy shit _ kind of moment.”

Lance made a gagging motion. “Keithsexual.  _ Inconceivable _ . I can’t believe that greasy mullet boy managed to exclusively attract the hottest guy I’ve ever met. No offense, Hunk.”

“None taken,” Hunk said mildly. “Objectively, Shiro is definitely the hottest one in our group.”

“Agreed,” Pidge said. “I’m ace, not blind,” she protested when everyone turned to her. 

“Back to the issue at hand,” Shiro said, embarrassed that everyone was discussing his attractiveness. “So you’re saying I could just… confess my love to Keith, and maybe he’d stop being a werewolf?”

“It’s possible,” Pidge said. “There aren’t a lot of sources for that, but what can it hurt?”

_ Keith’s pride _ , Shiro thought.  _ Or my heart could get broken _ . 

“Gee, I dunno,” Lance said. “Wolf-Keith could be totally crazed with bloodlust and attack Shiro the moment he shows up?”

_ Or that. _

“Lance, I’m a combat veteran,” Shiro pointed out. “I’m pretty sure I can handle myself against a single wolf should that happen.”

“I’m just saying you should be careful,” Lance argued. “We don’t want  _ two _ werewolves on our hands.” 

 

* * *

 

Having made a decision on what to do for Keith should have quieted the anxiety that was plaguing Shiro, but the fact that he was going to have to  _ confess his feelings _ just made it worse. He avoided even trying to sleep after his nightmares had taken an even darker turn. Terror yanked him from a dream where he watched Keith turn into a wolf, howling as blood and entrails dripped from his tooth-filled muzzle. Shiro was frozen in place as Keith rounded on him.

He woke just before those teeth snapped around his neck.

 

The sooner the full moon came, the better. Shiro stumbled through his daily life in a fog, exhausted and strung out on anxiety. 

He hated everything about the situation. The idea of being able to ‘save’ Keith with his love turned his stomach, like a bad movie plot. It felt wrong to confess in this way. He couldn't help feeling like Keith was going to lose respect for him after this, even if he was grateful for being cured of lycanthropy. 

 

Feelings were stupidly complicated. He wished they'd never gone on that camping trip.

 

Once again intimately familiar with the witching hour, Shiro sleeplessly paced through his house. Quark trailed him, trilling in distress. He lifted her into his arms for a cuddle, uncertain of exactly who was being comforted. 

“I’m in love with him, Quark,” he whispered against her fuzzy forehead. She purred. “I’m in love with Keith and I feel like the worst best friend in the world. I just want him to be safe and happy. But I’m afraid that doing this is going to drive him away from me. I know I’m being selfish, but I don’t want to lose him.”

Quark began to knead her paws against his shoulder. Shiro sighed softly and stroked her ears. As much as he was dreading it, he knew what had to be done. Keith was under a curse and he was the only one who could lift it. If that meant that he never spoke to him again, so be it. Keith’s safety was more important than Shiro’s feelings. 

 

* * *

 

The day of the full moon dawned to an exhausted and nauseous Shiro. 

 

Keith hadn’t texted him in five days. Shiro was going out of his mind with anxiety. The wait for nightfall was one of the hardest things he’d ever experienced, and he’d endured active combat zones. At least then he’d had a training for the situation. This he was going into blind and bewildered. 

His anxiety only increased when he drove over to Keith’s apartment complex at dusk to find his bright red motorcycle missing from the lot. 

He immediately called Pidge. 

“He’s gone somewhere else, I don’t know where,” Shiro said, trying not to panic.

“Hold on, I’ll hack the GPS in his phone and send you his location,” she said. 

“You can do that?” he asked, frowning.

“Of course I can,” Pidge said. “It’s not even hard. Phones these days are literally built to be stalked. The government can track our every move. Makes me wish I didn’t rely so much on technology, you know? Anyway, sending you the location now.” 

Shiro’s phone pinged against his ear with the information Pidge sent. He looked at the red pushpin on the digital map. Keith had returned to the woods they’d visited on their camping trip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the unplanned hiatus of this fic, I was super busy with stuff for AWA. Trying to resume a regular schedule now!
> 
> Through some miracle, I actually stumbled upon the original Tumblr post that I had been thinking of when I came up for the idea for this fic. I don't know how much of it is actually based in folklore, but hey. It's a fun idea. Check it out [here.](http://annabellioncourt.tumblr.com/post/72995324233/theres-a-lovely-old-english-myth-that-if-someone)
> 
> Find me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/meoqie) and [tumblr](http://meoqie.tumblr.com)! Thanks for reading!


	4. Stalked in the forest too close to hide

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm laughing so hard at the drastic mood shift of this chapter's song choice
> 
> Chapter title source: [Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOg5VxrRTi0)
> 
> In case it wasn't obvious enough, this chapter is pretty much entirely explicit. There's not a lot of plot but what's there is important, so if you prefer to skip the sexual content I have it bracketed by asterisks.

Driving out to the woods was significantly eerier after dark than it had been during bright daylight. Shiro’s headlights cast uncanny shadows through the trees crowding the narrow road. He wasn’t normally rattled by things like this - camping excursion excluded - but he found himself thoroughly spooked. He turned his music up a little louder, trying to drown his fears in 80’s synthpop.

His cell phone was still dutifully tracking Keith’s location, which hadn’t really moved since Pidge first sent it to Shiro. He guessed that Keith had left his own phone with his bike after transforming. A lone traveler in the woods might need a cell phone for emergencies, but a huge wolf was pretty self-sufficient. Not to mention lacking in thumbs and pockets.

 

Absently, he wondered what happened to Keith’s clothes when he shifted into a werewolf. Would he be naked when he shifted back? Shiro felt his face heat up at the thought. He hoped there was magic involved that kept a werewolf clothed through their transformation, otherwise this would be even more invasive than it already was. As much as Shiro would’ve loved to see Keith naked, he wanted it to be in a situation where Keith _chose_ to show him his body. Preferably in his bedroom. With romantic mood lighting. During an evening of kissing and tender foreplay.

Shiro put on the brakes for that particular train of thought. This was no time for errant sexual fantasies. Keith was potentially wandering around these woods as a bloodthirsty wolf, and he had to protect him before something terrible happened.

 

The clearing where they’d parked to make their campsite was exactly how it looked a month ago, logs still encircling a dead fire pit. Keith’s bike seemed to practically glow in Shiro’s headlights, the only red object amongst all the brown and green foliage. Clothes seemed to be neatly folded on top of the seat. So much for magic preserving Keith’s modesty. Curses were so inconsiderate.

Grabbing the large flashlight from his glove compartment, Shiro left the safety of his black SUV for the foreboding forest.

 

“I’m doing this for Keith,” He said firmly to himself as he switched on the flashlight.

His stomach was still heavy with dread, but he set off into the grasping darkness.

 

Following his intuition, he took the trail that led to the clearing from his dream. The beam of his flashlight cast stark shadows from the trees, making the darkness that much deeper behind them. He decided to just switch it off and rely on the brightness of the full moon. Strangely, that made the forest seem more peaceful and safe. Crickets sang around him, and in the distance there was the low call of an owl. Shiro felt himself relaxing just slightly. Maybe Keith would be just like a normal wolf, nonaggressive and skittish. Then he heard the unmistakable sound of a wolf’s howl and his blood ran cold.

The last thing he wanted to do was get closer to the sound, but he forced himself to move faster. This was _Keith_ , his best friend and the only person he’d ever been in love with. He hadn’t managed to protect him from becoming a werewolf in the first place, so now he had to make things right.

Arriving at the clearing was just as sudden as it had been in his nightmare. Illuminated by the bright moon it looked so similar that for a moment he could see the crowd of wolves cornering Keith. But then he blinked and it was just one wolf, looking as surprised as a canine face could look.

 

“Keith!” Shiro called, relief and panic washing through him in equal measure.

All the carefully planned speeches he’d rehearsed in his head during every sleepless night since his realization flew from his mind. He stammered for a few heartbeats, struggling to manage some semblance of coherent words.

“I love you,” He finally blurted out. It wasn’t fancy or eloquent, but it was what was in his heart. “I’ve loved you for so long, but I was too afraid to say anything. You’re my best friend, and your safety and happiness is the most important thing to me. That’s why I’m here… To save you from your lycanthropy. I know you got bit by a werewolf on our camping trip, and that’s why you’ve been so distant. I…”

Shiro faltered into silence as the shape of the wolf blurred, fading and elongating until Keith - in his normal human form - stood in the middle of the clearing.

 

Shiro’s first thought was ‘oh my god, it actually worked.’ His second thought was ‘oh fuck, Keith is naked.’ His third thought, a continuation of the second, was ‘he’s the most gorgeous man I’ve ever laid eyes on.’

Stunned speechless, Shiro couldn’t tear his gaze from Keith’s body. His broad shoulders and narrow waist. The tattoo of a UFO on his left arm. The pale scars on his chest. Those were all familiar to Shiro. Another tattoo was a sinuous abstract design wrapping around his thigh. He knew that existed but had never seen it in person. The dark trail of hair from Keith’s navel thickened to a larger triangle between his legs and Shiro used all his willpower to look away. This wasn’t the time or the place.

“Shiro,” Keith said quietly, approaching him and touching his face with his fingertips.

Shiro flinched slightly.

“Look at me.”

He met Keith’s eyes, his heart in his throat.

“I feel the same,” Keith said, and he raised himself up on his toes to gently kiss him.

 

Shiro’s head was spinning with everything that was happening. He’d saved Keith from being a werewolf, he’d confessed his love, and Keith returned his feelings. And Keith was _kissing him_.

 

*******

 

Keith was too close to resist touching anymore, so he slid his hands down Keith’s body, resting them against his hips as he returned the kiss passionately. Shiro wanted to touch him _more_ , pull him close, press him down against the ground and...

He made himself stop thinking about sex and pull away from Keith instead. “I’m sorry,” He said quickly. “I should have asked, I didn’t mean…”

Keith yanked him back with arms firmly around his neck. “Don’t stop,” He breathed. “God, don’t you dare stop.”

Shiro was momentarily struck dumb by Keith’s insistence, for all the world sounding like something out of all his shameful fantasies. As guilty as it always made him feel he never could keep Keith off his mind when he wanted to get off. Thinking of his best friend always infinitely more effective than any kind of porno.

An insistent tug on the back of his shirt grounded him in reality again, and he promptly complied with Keith's demand.

 

Keith’s mouth was hot and eager beneath his own, lips parting for Shiro’s tongue so he could lick into his mouth. He tasted like the barest memories of an iced coffee and a more recent piece of peppermint gum. Captivated, Shiro was taking full advantage of the freedom he’d been given. He indulged his desires and reached around Keith’s body to firmly grope his ass, something he’d always wanted to do. He was rewarded with a moan, so he pulled Keith even closer.

Everything about this situation felt surreal, and Shiro absently considered the possibility that he was dreaming, maybe having passed out from extreme exhaustion. It would explain why what he expected to end in Keith rejecting him was playing out more like a very self indulgent fantasy.

Keith jarred him out of his thoughts again by bracing himself against Shiro’s shoulders so that he could get his legs around Shiro’s waist, putting trust in his strength. It was Shiro’s turn to moan as he easily supported him, his hands sliding up underneath his thighs. He found them already slightly damp, just from _kissing_ him and Shiro was quite sure he’d never been so turned on in his life.

“Shiro,” Keith whispered, pulling away to press hot, open mouth kisses in a damp trail down his neck. “I need you.”

Shiro shuddered. “I’m here,” He murmured, gripping Keith’s thighs tight enough to bruise. “I’m right here.”

Keith shoved his hands beneath the back of his shirt, and the heat of his palms against his bare skin was almost scorching in the cold night air.

“Want this off,” he complained, clawing at the fabric.

“Okay, okay.”

 

Keith didn’t seem inclined to climb off Shiro so he could pull his shirt off, despite his petulant expression, so Shiro sought an alternate solution.  His eyes lit upon the large rock in the center of the clearing and he walked them over to it, grateful for it’s relatively smooth surface as he leaned Keith against it for support. Keith’s breath hitched as he was pinned between it and Shiro’s body, taking matters into his own hands and just yanking his t-shirt off.

He hummed in appreciation as he ran his hands over the battle scarred skin of Shiro’s body, groping muscles without compunction. Shiro had been shirtless in front of Keith before, but he’d never noticed him staring with any kind of desire. Probably, he realized, because in most of those situations he’d been too busy trying not to look like he was staring at Keith in return.

“Stop getting distracted,” Keith said, capturing Shiro’s face between his hands and forcing him to meet his eyes.

“I can’t help it,” Shiro protested. “I’m a little overwhelmed by you.”

 

Overwhelmed was putting it lightly. He felt like he'd been starving himself his whole life and now was offered a feast. And what a delicious feast Keith was… if by some miracle this became a regular occurrence, Shiro knew he was going to ask if he could eat him out as soon as possible. Just the thought made his mouth water, but at the current moment his arousal was straining against his zipper, begging to be buried inside of Keith.

He gently caressed Keith’s shoulders before moving downward, brushing his thumbs over his nipples then tracing the subtle definition of abs under soft skin.

“Is it okay to keep going?” Shiro was sure to ask before moving his hand any lower.

“Please,” Keith blurted out, leaning his head back against the stone behind him.

Shiro used it as an opportunity to kiss at Keith’s neck without giving up the slow exploration of Keith’s body, fingers carding through the trail of dark hair on his abdomen.

“Hurry up,” Keith whined, squirming to move against him. “I'm already so fucking wet…”

 

Shiro leaned one knee on the rock to brace himself, dizzy from the rush of knowing that Keith was desperate for him; and that he was fully willing to vocalize that desire. It gave him the burst of courage he needed to finally slide his fingers between Keith’s legs. Almost immediately they were coated with some of the slick evidence of Keith’s arousal, and it made Shiro groan. He was so hard that it hurt, tightly constrained by his clothes.

“Fuck,” He whispered, teasing Keith with a thumb while he dipped the tips of his fingers inside him.

Eager, Keith rolled his hips, trying to coerce him into moving his fingers in deeper. “Please,” He begged, breathless. “Shiro, I want it. I want you to fuck me.”

Shiro couldn't handle it, dropping his head onto Keith's shoulder as he moaned helplessly. “Are you sure? We don't have-”

“Yes!” Keith shouted, growing angry. “I need it, I'm going to lose my mind if you don't put your fucking cock inside of me real fucking soon.”

Shiro was still feeling stunned stupid, but the urgency of Keith’s words forced him into action. Pants unfastened and pushed down carelessly, his arousal rubbed against the inside of Keith's thigh. Even just that made them both moan. The surreal feeling increased, having Shiro almost entirely convinced this was just an elaborate wet dream. If this was a dream, he wasn’t planning on waking up anytime soon.

 

“Yes, yes, fuck yes,” Keith panted, reaching down to shove Shiro’s boxers aside. Keith didn’t waste time and had a hand wrapped around him, already guiding Shiro towards his entrance.

Shiro only leaned in against him and let him take control, panting hot and heavy against his neck. “You're so perfect,” he murmured, kissing Keith just below his ear. “I've never wanted anyone like I want you.”

“Yeah?” Keith said, grinning as he leaned away from Shiro. “Well then make me feel it. I wanna _feel_ how bad you've wanted me.”

Shiro’s knees went weak as Keith shifted and he felt himself slide easily inside. Keith’s heated desire had him completely relaxed, and wet to the point of dripping.

“Holy shit,” he whispered once there was nothing left to give, struggling to keep his body under control.

He could feel Keith’s thighs trembling under his hands, and he lightly stroked the skin with his thumbs.

“You feel amazing,” he praised softly. “If this is just a dream it’s better than any I’ve had before.”

Keith gave him a sly look and gently rolled his hips forward, making Shiro choke on a moan before he could get anything else sappy out.

“You’ve dreamed about me?” he asked.

“Often. God, Keith, probably too often.”

“I never would have guessed. You’re either a perfect gentleman or a terrific liar.”

Shiro laughed, brief and breathless. “I would prefer to think the former.”

“Then I’m gonna have to ask you to step outside your comfort zone and be a little less gentlemanly,” Keith said. “Because I want you to fuck me hard until I’m screaming.”

Heat flooded Shiro and he whimpered. “Anything for you,” he said.

 

It definitely helped that it was exactly what Shiro wanted to do anyway.

 

Keith’s shout at the first sharp thrust was something Shiro was planning to remember for the rest of his life. With a grunt, he pressed his forehead against Keith’s shoulder and held him tight as he did his best to fulfill Keith’s request. Keith’s soft panting and breathless moans beside his ear increased in pitch and volume gradually, his blunt nails digging red tracks into his back.

Strong as he was, Shiro felt his arms start to ache from the effort of supporting him, and after a particularly rough thrust, Keith slipped down the stone slightly with a yelp.

“Sorry,” Shiro gasped out, shifting their bodies so he could wrap his arms more firmly around Keith.

Keith laughed, tightening his own grip. “Running out of stamina already?” he teased.

Shiro growled. “Hardly.”

He pressed Keith harder against the rock at his back and widened his stance for better balance so that he could set a faster pace. It made Keith shudder, breath hitching with every thrust. He had somehow gotten a smudge of dirt on his cheek, and sweat plastered his bangs to his forehead. Shiro was pretty sure he’d never been quite so in love with him.

“Is it okay if I come inside?” he asked between heavy breaths.

“Only if you promise to clean your mess up after,” Keith replied just as breathlessly, smirking.

“Gladly.”

 

Elated, Shiro pressed down on Keith as close as he could while the heat that had been building since the moment Keith kissed him finally crested, release sweeping through him with a full body shiver. Keith let out a small whimper, clutching him tightly.

Weariness descended upon Shiro immediately, but he’d made a promise to Keith and he intended to keep it. With a lingering kiss, Shiro gently pulled out and lowered Keith’s feet to the ground. Kisses were trailed down Keith’s neck and chest, Shiro got down on his knees. Before he could even direct him to do so, Keith draped one leg over his shoulder, back arched provocatively as he leaned against the stone.

 

The sight of his own release dripping out of Keith was almost enough to get Shiro hard again, and he felt himself twitch slightly in interest. Ignoring his own desire, he focused his attention entirely on Keith. He swiped his fingertips through the milky liquid coating his thighs, collecting it on his hand. Sure that Keith was watching, he brought his fingers to his mouth and licked them clean suggestively. Keith whined, grasping Shiro’s hair with one hand.

“ _Please_.”

Shiro grinned up at him, kissing the inside of Keith’s thigh. “Since you asked so nicely…”

The moment he got his mouth on Keith, Shiro felt him shudder as the hand in his hair tightened its grip. Lightly, Shiro stroked his entrance with his fingers as he teased him, this time with tongue. Using Keith’s reactions as a guide to what felt best, he let his touches grow a little less gentle. He decided that being between Keith’s thighs was his new favorite thing. He wanted to do this as often as possible, preferably at least once a day. Especially with how Keith tugged his hair and _mewled_ when Shiro wrapped his lips around him and gently sucked.

“Oh god don’t stop,” Keith panted as he pulled away to continue fluttering his tongue against him. “Just… _nnnn_ , fuck, keep doing that, and maybe... could you fingerfuck me at the same time? Please, please, I’m so close.”

Shiro nuzzled against Keith’s hip, kissing the edges of the tattoo there. “Okay baby.”

He felt Keith spasm around his fingers as soon as his tongue swiped over him again. Slick liquid dripped down Shiro’s arm as he pumped his fingers in and out, starting to gently suck again.

Keith's moans increased in volume, the leg over Shiro's shoulder pulling him closer. “Yes, yes, yes!” he cried, trembling. “I'm gonna come, don't stop!”

 

Stopping wasn’t something Shiro would dream of doing, and he sped up the motions of his fingers even as his wrist began to ache, determined to bring Keith to his release.

“Fuck!” Keith shouted, his head falling back against the stone as pleasure swept through him in waves.

Shiro gently worked him through it, caressing with his tongue and slowly tapering off the thrusts of his fingers. He shuddered at the sensation of Keith throbbing against his tongue and hand, still working Keith almost to the point of oversensitivity following his orgasm.

“Holy shit,” Keith breathed once Shiro finally pulled away. “That definitely ranks among my top ten orgasms.”

 

*******

 

Shiro huffed a soft laugh, standing and pulling Keith into a tight embrace. “I love you,” he said, petting his hair.

Keith hummed, nuzzling into his touch. “Sorry for basically jumping you,” he said after a moment. “I'm always abnormally horny after I've been in my wolf form.”

“It's really not a prob-wait,” Shiro began, mouth moving before his brain had fully processed what Keith said . “Always?”

“Well ever since I went through puberty, anyway,” Keith explained offhandedly. “It's just a thing I guess. Primal instincts or whatever. I usually just jack off alone but that was so much b-”

“Stop, stop, stop,” Shiro interrupted, never mind that they were both still naked and standing in the woods. “Keith, how long have you been a werewolf?”

“Uh, my whole life?” Keith said in a tone that suggested, duh, isn't that obvious. “Just like every other werewolf?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy (early) birthday Keith here's some wet messy sex in the forest lmao. 
> 
> One of my friends was convinced that Shiro would actually be the werewolf, and I sort of regret not going that route tbh. Hopefully this is enough of a surprising development, though.
> 
> Find me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/meoqie) and [tumblr](http://meoqie.tumblr.com)! Thanks for reading!


	5. I want to look you in the eye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title source: [The Wolf - Mumford & Sons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD3iXpv4h-o)
> 
> I didn't forget about this fic, I just burned out my creative juices writing my Halloween fic in like three (3) days and then was immediately in the midst of holiday insanity. But I finished it! And honestly I think this chapter came out the best.
> 
> There's some more explicit content in this chapter, again bracketed by asterisks just in case. Also a heads up for brief anti-trans sentiments in the beginning and some dysphoria stuff.
> 
> Apologies if the use of italics are confusing, it's meant for a POV shift 'flashback', and the non-italic dialogue is for nonverbal speaking. Werewolves can't speak human with their doggy vocal cords.
> 
> This chapter also now has [art](http://spreadbeans.tumblr.com/post/175259454467/got-commissioned-to-draw-a-scene-from-meoqies) that I commissioned from the fabulous [spreadbeans.](http://spreadbeans.tumblr.com) His art is so freaking fantastic I am so thrilled to have a scene from this fic in his style.

_Keith woke the moment he heard the first howl in the distance. Shiro was still sleeping peacefully in the tent beside him, and he was careful not to wake him as he left. The light of the gibbous moon was enough for his sensitive eyes, even in his human form, as he made his way through the forest, seeking out the source of the sound._

_The howling picked up again once he was closer, and a mournful ache that he thought he’d left behind awakened in his chest._ A pack _, it whispered,_ your brethren _._

_He picked up his pace until he was running through the woods, summoned by a powerful, ancient magic that sang to his very essence._

_When he reached the clearing, over a dozen canine eyes turned their gazes to him._

_He suddenly wished he’d ignored the call._

Hello pup _, a large female wolf said, her muzzle more white than gray._

_Keith bowed respectfully. “I’m sorry to intrude,” he said. “I don’t have a pack of my own, and your call was too powerful to resist.”_

_The elderly matriarch made a huffing sound of disapproval._ You abandoned your pack, you mean, _she accused_. When you chose to change who you are, renounce your true nature.

_Keith bristled. “I changed myself outwardly to reflect who I always was inside,” he argued. “My pack rejected me for it, not the other way around.”_

_The wolf sighed heavily._ Even now, I can hear the cries of your barren, ignored womb. You’ll always be alone and unhappy unless you embrace what you were born for. Return to your pack, young one. Find a mate. Bear pups while you still have time.

_The words cut into Keith like knives, and he balled his hands into fists._

_“That’s not true,” he protested weakly. “Living like that would just make me miserable. This is who I am, being myself is what makes me happy.”_

Does it really? _The wolf mused._ Then why is it your heart is filled with so much sorrow? Think on my words, pup.

_Keith turned on his heel and fled, feeling the eyes of the wolves burning into his retreating back._

 

* * *

  


Shiro listened while Keith relayed the story as they walked back together, Keith wearing Shiro’s shirt and both of them huddled close for warmth.

As Keith repeated the words of the matron wolf, Shiro pulled him even closer.

“So that’s why I’ve been so weird since the trip,” Keith finished. “I was just, all in my head and couldn’t let go of what she’d said. I thought I had moved on from mourning my pack, but I guess not.”

“Would I sound like a therapist if I said grief isn’t linear and there’s no set date you’re ‘supposed’ to have recovered by?” Shiro offered.

He was still trying to process the ‘Keith has always been a werewolf’ thing, but that wasn’t the part of his identity that Keith was struggling with at the moment. Supportive friendship now, curiosity later.

“Yes,” Keith answered, but he was smiling slightly. “I just couldn’t stop thinking that maybe she’s right, maybe I will always be alone and miserable if I don’t go back.”

“Keith, I can’t tell you how to feel, but I know what I’ve seen, and from what I’ve seen, that’s not true,” Shiro said. “When we first met, you were always wearing baggy clothes and hunching your shoulders. You rarely talked and never smiled. Now? You’re confident and open. You know who you are. Your pack rejecting you because you chose to be true to yourself isn’t your fault.”

Keith promptly stopped walking to wrap his arms around him in silent gratitude. Shiro smiled and embraced him in return.

“And you’re not alone,” he continued. “You have me, and Pidge, and Lance, and Hunk. It might not be a traditional family, or a ‘pack,’ but we love you all the same.”

Keith looked up from where his face was buried against Shiro’s chest, his eyes red and filled with tears.

“God, I’m such an idiot,” he whispered with a watery laugh, wiping his face. “And I probably look like a mess right now.”

He still had dirt on his cheek.

“A little bit,” Shiro admitted, but he stroked Keith’s hair affectionately.

“Not to be a cliche canine or anything, but that feels really good,” Keith muttered.

“Would you like some belly rubs too?” Shiro teased.

Keith groaned and punched his shoulder. “Don’t you _dare_.”

Shiro laughed

 

“I spent all that time moping around because oh boo hoo I don’t have a pack,” Keith explained as they continued down the trail. “But you’re right, I have you guys. You have always loved and supported me in ways my real family never did. Why would I ever need anything else? I should have just talked to you about it.”

“Yeah, you should have,” Shiro agreed. “But it’s okay, I understand why you didn’t. Starting a conversation with ‘by the way, I’m a werewolf, and I’m having this specific emotional reaction because of it’ would have been… An adventure, to say the least.”

Keith snorted in amusement. “We’re technically never supposed to tell anyone who isn’t a werewolf that we even exist. It’s a sacred secret, if we tell a normal human we could lose our powers, and so on. I’m pretty sure that’s just a myth, though. But maybe the rules are different if someone figures it out for themselves. How did you even figure it out, anyway?”

Shiro gave a nervous laugh, thinking about how many not-werewolves now knew about the existence of werewolves. ”The camping trip sparked this huge ‘do werewolves exist or don’t they’ debate,” he said. “Remember the great ‘Jersey Devil argument’ from a few years ago?”

Keith made a face. “How could I forget? Lance and Pidge stopped talking to each other for a month.”

“It was kind of like that, but not as bad because I guess everyone is a little more mature now.”

“Doubtful. But you figured that out just from some pawprints?”

“Uh, well, not exactly,” Shiro said. He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling even more embarrassed than when he’d told the others about his dream. “You know how I told you I had a nightmare that night of the camping trip, but said I didn’t remember the details?”

“Yes,” Keith answered. “Something tells me that wasn’t the truth.” He glared up at Shiro.

Shiro winced, ashamed. “Yeah, no. I actually had this really specific nightmare that you were attacked by wolves in that exact clearing.”

Keith made a soft sound. “That’s kind of funny,” he said.

“Why is that?” Shiro asked, a little irritated that his horrifying nightmares were apparently ‘funny’ somehow.

“Well, there’s this legend among werewolves,” Keith said. “That if your mate is in danger or distressed while you’re apart from each other, you’ll have a dream about it. There are stories of werewolves saving their mate from life or death situations because they dreamed that there was something seriously wrong.”

Shiro glanced at Keith to find that he was staring at him with one eyebrow raised.

“What?” he asked, feeling awkward. “Are you saying we’re… mates?”

Keith shrugged, turning away as they finally returned to where their individual vehicles were parked. “That’s not really a thing if it’s not a male and female werewolf together. And it is just a legend, after all.”

Shiro folded his arms, smirking. “So you’re saying you _don’t_ want to be my mate?” he teased.

“I didn’t say that!” Keith protested. “But it’s different, because you’re not a werewolf.”

“Is there some official way I’m supposed to ask?” Shiro continued, backing Keith up towards the side of his SUV. “Is it like a proposal? Should I find a pretty rock or a cool pinecone in the forest and present it to you? Do I have to bring you a fresh kill?”

Keith laughed, shoving Shiro away. “Knock it off, you asshole. _Technically,_ if you were a werewolf, we would already be mated. It’s not anything fancy or complicated - we had sex, you put your seed inside of me. That’s all there is to it. Why are you smiling like that?”

“I was just thinking I told you so,” Shiro said, grinning. “You don’t need to go back to your pack and pretend to be someone else to find a mate. Sure, I’m not a werewolf, but you didn’t do too badly for yourself I daresay.”

He jokingly posed and flexed.

“Oh my god,” Keith groaned, rolling his eyes.

He pulled off Shiro’s shirt and threw it at him. It unfolded halfway through its trajectory and lost all momentum. Shiro caught it, laughing.

Keith flipped him off with both hands before tugging on the clothes he’d left on the seat of his motorcycle.

 

“You are right, though,” he acknowledged once he was dressed again. “I’m happy here, I don’t need to change anything.”

“Can I still call myself your mate?” Shiro asked, pulling Keith into another hug and trapping his arms against his sides.

“No,” Keith muttered. “‘Boyfriend’ is a perfectly serviceable term.”

Shiro felt his chest swell with affection at Keith labeling them as boyfriends, and he hugged him a little tighter.

“I can’t breathe,” Keith protested, but he didn’t try to push Shiro away.

 

* * *

 

Together they lifted Keith’s bike into the back of Shiro’s SUV, and as they started the drive back towards the main road, Shiro’s phone rang - a call from Pidge.

“Oh shit, I was supposed to call them,” Shiro cursed.

“Them? Why?” Keith asked. “Wait a minute - does everyone know about the werewolf thing?”

Shiro made a weak sound as he avoided looking at Keith, and justified it with the fact that he was driving. “Uh, yes?”

Keith groaned and rubbed his temples. “Well, there’s no helping it now, I guess.”

As the phone began ringing for the second time, Keith took it upon himself to answer.

 

“Hey Pidge,” he greeted casually, putting it on speaker.

“Well, since you’re speaking and not barking, I’m guessing things went well,” she replied.

“Well, there’s good news, bad news, and great news,” Shiro said.

“Bad news first!” Lance said, his voice slightly muffled.

“Go away, if you wanted to talk you should have been the one to call!” Pidge said.

There was the sound of rustling and shoving, and then a thud.

“Anyway, bad news first,” Pidge repeated.

“Bad news is, Keith is still a werewolf,” Shiro said, pausing for dramatic effect.

There was a chorus of ‘what?!’ on the other end.

Keith covered his mouth to muffle a laugh.

“Good news is, that’s okay, because he’s actually always been a werewolf. It’s apparently a genetic thing. I haven’t gotten the full details on that yet, actually.”

He took his eyes away from the road momentarily to give Keith a pointed glance. Keith wasn’t even looking at him.

“There’s not a whole lot of detail,” Keith said. “Werewolves exist, don’t go spreading that information around or I’ll have to kill you, and you can only be born a werewolf. Biting a human as a wolf won’t do anything besides cause pain and potentially an infection. Sorry if any of you were hoping to get transformed, or whatever.”

“Negative,” Hunk’s voice chimed in. “Running around the woods contracting fleas does not sound like a very good time. No offense Keith, I’m sure you don’t have fleas.”

“Keith definitely has fleas. Wait, what’s the best news?” Lance demanded. “Pidge, do not punch me again, you fucking _goblin_.”

“Oh, just that Keith and I are boyfriends,” Shiro said, sounding for all the world like a middle school kid with his first crush.

Pidge shrieked in triumph. “Keith, you owe me twenty bucks.”

“Oh fuck you,” Keith said. “Bets don’t count when you’re piss drunk.”

“What bet?” Shiro asked.

On the other end of the line, he could hear Hunk and Lance asking the same question.

“Yeah Keith, what bet?” Pidge taunted.

“There was no bet, after five shots of tequila bets are null and void ,” Keith argued.

Shiro decided not to comment on the fact that _five_ , really? A niggling suspicion was crawling out of the back of his mind, and he narrowed his eyes.

“Pidge,” he began, his voice dangerously level. “Were you playing both of us?”

“I admit to nothing,” Pidge proclaimed. “All I’ll say is people are for some reason really inclined to confess their secrets to me when they’re drunk. I have blackmail material on every single one of you.”

“How long?” Shiro demanded.

“My lips are sealed!” Pidge sang. “Thanks for the update on the werewolf situation, use protection, talk to you later, bye!”

 

The line went dead with a faint beep.

 

“She knew,” Keith said flatly. “She knew you had feelings for me when I told her about my feelings for you and she _didn’t tell me_. She just made this stupid bet with me that if I confessed and you were interested, I owed her twenty bucks!”

“She didn’t say anything to me, either,” Shiro offered. “Never even hinted that I might have a chance with you. But hey, technically you’re still free from the bet - you didn’t confess, I did.”

“Oh, that’s true. An excellent technicality, I will be sure to shove it in Pidge’s weaselly face.”

Shiro snorted in amusement.

“Our friends are the worst,” Keith proclaimed. “I love you all more than anything in the world.”

“Incidentally we love you a whole damn lot too,” Shiro said with a grin. “We were frantic with worry about the whole werewolf thing.”

“I’m really sorry about that.” Keith sighed.

“It is what it is,” Shiro said reassuringly. “Hey, one question though - how come you can be human even though it’s the full moon?”

“Oh! I only have to shift at moonrise, after that I can shift back,” Keith explained. “But sometimes a wolf just has to run around in the woods under the full moon, you know?”

“I mean, no?” Shiro said with a laugh. “But I think I can imagine. It just feels good, in the same way driving fast down an empty highway does.”

“Exactly,” Keith confirmed. “That’s one of the reasons I drive a motorcycle in the first place, honestly. It reminds me of running as a wolf.”

Shiro glanced at Keith, quietly awed by this mystical, magical creature that was somehow his boyfriend.

“My boyfriend is a werewolf,” he murmured. “It’s like I’m in a teen romance novel. Everything about it feels surreal.”

“It can’t be a teen romance novel, only the side characters get to be something other than cis and heterosexual,” Keith pointed out.

Shiro burst out laughing.

 

* * *

 

Hauling the bike out of the SUV was even more of an ordeal than getting it in, and by the end of it both of them were smudged with oil and panting.

 

“Come inside to clean up,” Keith offered, his tone implying that ‘cleaning up’ wasn’t all he had planned.

“Okay,” Shiro agreed immediately.

 

*

The moment the door shut behind them, Shiro discovered that ‘cleaning up’ wasn’t part of the plan at all, as Keith promptly pinned him back against the door with a heated kiss.

Shiro grunted as he collided solidly with the wood with the force of Keith’s kiss, wrapping his arms around his waist and letting him take the lead.

Keith quickly trailed the kisses down Shiro’s neck, nipping sharply at his pulse and making his breath hitch. There was definitely going to be visible bruises from some of those bites, and he distantly wondered if he had any concealer or if he’d have to wear a scarf in the summertime.

Keith moved his kisses even lower, pushing up Shiro’s shirt to leave a burning path down his chest and stomach with his mouth. Shiro’s head was spinning with how quickly blood was pooling southward, and he gripped Keith’s hair for leverage.

“Are we gonna do this right here?” he managed hoarsely.

Keith looked up at him, already on his knees with his fingers on the button of his jeans. “Well, I was actually planning on just teasing you for a bit here, before dragging you to my bedroom and asking you if I could fuck you with a toy, but we could skip right to that part.”

Shiro felt his growing arousal twitch against Keith’s palm with interest at the prospect, and Keith grinned.

“Is that a yes?” he purred, nuzzling his face against the prominent bulge.

Shiro moaned weakly. “Yes, _please_.”

 

Keith hopped back to his feet and pulled Shiro deeper into the small apartment to his bedroom at the end of a short hall.

“So, when you say toy…” Shiro began as Keith shoved him towards the bed.

Keith tilted his head to prompt him to continue, something Shiro now realized was an amusingly doglike gesture that Keith did often.

“Do you mean a vibrator or a strap-on?” He finished, a little embarrassed at having to spell it out.

Keith hummed, straddling his lap and carding his fingers through his hair. “Which would you prefer? I have both.”

A vibrator sounded fun, and it was something Shiro had experience with from solo adventures, but the idea of Keith actually fucking him… His body flushed with heat at the prospect, effectively making the decision for him.

“The strap-on,” he said decisively.

Keith looked delighted at the choice, and he kissed him soundly before pulling away to open the bottom drawer of his dresser.

Shiro peered over, intrigued. Inside was a wide assortment of toys, from small bullet vibrators to large wands. His face heated at the idea of watching Keith play with himself sometime, and he made a mental note to suggest it at some point.

Keith tossed the necessary items onto the bed before stripping off his oil-stained clothes. Taking it as a hint, Shiro did the same, scooting farther back onto the bed once he was naked.

“Have you done stuff like this before?” Keith asked, assembling the complicated-looking harness easily.

“I’ve played with a vibrator, yeah,” Shiro admitted.

“That’s hot. I kinda wanna watch you get yourself off sometime.”

Shiro laughed. “I was planning on saying the same to you.”

Keith climbed onto the bed, the bright purple toy a bit distracting.

“That looks like it glows in the dark,” Shiro commented.

“It does.”

“... turn off the lights.”

“It’s probably not charged up enough, but it might glow a little,” Keith said, standing again to switch off the overhead light.

Shiro snickered helplessly at the disembodied purple dick glowing faintly in the darkness. “Ghost dick,” he said, laughing more as Keith returned to the bed, making the ‘ghost dick’ float towards him.

“You are literally a child,” Keith muttered, climbing onto the mattress and reaching for Shiro.

“Technically, I am only seven,” Shiro said, catching Keith’s hands and pulling him close.

“Fuck you,” Keith groaned.

“That’s the plan,” Shiro laughed, kissing up Keith’s neck. “I think the lube is next to my foot.”

“I can see it.”

“You can see in the dark?”

“Sort of, more like I need less light to see than a normal human. I also have better hearing and a sense of smell.”

Keith nuzzled against Shiro’s shoulder. “Your scent always makes me feel safe,” he murmured.

Not gifted with Keith’s ability to see in the dim light, it took Shiro several tries to capture his lips.

“I’m so gone for you,” he confessed breathlessly as he pulled away from the kiss.

He could feel Keith smile against his mouth. “I’m pretty crazy about you, too.”

 

They were less frenzied than they’d been in the woods, and Shiro carded one hand through Keith’s hair as he covered the inside of his thighs with kisses, his lube slicked fingers busy elsewhere.

He ended up on his hands and knees, Keith mouthing the back of his neck as he fucked him slowly and deeply. He dropped his forehead against the pillows, moaning shamelessly as Keith tormented him with every slow drag against his prostate.

“Bite my neck,” he urged. “I know you want to.”

Keith made a helpless sound, sinking his teeth into the back of Shiro’s neck.

For all Shiro wasn’t a werewolf, some base animalistic instinct in him was ignited anyway, and he came untouched, Keith fucking him through it until the edge of over-sensitivity.

They showered together afterward, laughing as they bumped elbows and knees in the small space. Shiro brought Keith to orgasm twice more, once in the shower with his fingers and again in bed with one of Keith’s vibrators.

 

*

It was long past midnight as they cuddled naked under the covers, on the borderline of sleep.

“You should stay over anytime we don’t work early,” Keith mumbled.

“You could always stay over at my place, too,” Shiro pointed out.

“No way, your cat hates me.”

“Oh yeah, what was that about, by the way?” Shiro asked, waking up a little as he remembered some of the other clues that had led to his conclusion that Keith was a werewolf. “Quark reacting so dramatically, and the claw marks on your door.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah,” Keith said, yawning. “My neighbors really did get a new dog, but Quark probably smelled _me_ because I’ve been transforming a lot more lately. And it drives the dog absolutely nuts. That’s where the scratches on the door came from. Anytime he’s outside he tries to get in to attack me. Like his golden retriever ass could take on a _wolf.”_

Shiro laughed softly. “Well, all the mysteries have been solved,” he said, absently stroking Keith’s hair.

“Can I sleep now? You wore me out pretty effectively.”

“I will take that as a compliment.”

Keith snorted softly and snuggled closer. Shiro continued to pet his hair until Keith fell asleep, starting to snore.

 

Shiro drifted off as well, and when the wolves showed up in his dreams they were no longer monsters with too many teeth. He ran with them through a moonlit forest, bare feet pounding against the dirt and fresh air in his mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated, and you can find me on [tumblr](http://meoqie.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/meoqie)!
> 
> Here's a full [playlist on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/user/1230484445/playlist/4O4cQXuoo5PNraJueIlMNA) which has all the chapter title songs, plus other wolf-themed music and of course 80s and 80s-esque synthpop for whenever you need to drive through a scary forest
> 
> Blows you all kisses.


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